Hi, I was wondering if 52c is about the right temp for my amd k10 cpu, when gaming? Its not oc'ed, and using the stock brand new heatsink fan.

What model is it again? Would be a lot easier to answer your question if we knew what exactly you have. Some models even within the same architecture have different limits towards temperature.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

Yup, 52C isn't bad under load. There are alot of things that come into the equation here:Are you using stock HSF or aftermarketHow well is your case ventillated. Even if you feel like you have good ventillation, you might still be getting hot pockets of air inside your case, possibly near the CPU from rising GPU heat.What kind of graphics card are you using, is it a blower-style or axial fan cooler

Again, regardless of all those variables, dont worry about 52C under load. Thats perfectly fine. I had a Pentium4 Extreme 3.0GHz that idled at 50-55 even with an aftermarket cooler (not a tower-style HSF though). While modern cpu's dont idle nearly that hot, they can get into the 50's or even 60's under load depending on the variables listed above.

[...]Yes, but I'm pretty sure that 52C is well within spec regardless.

I didn't say if 52 C is good or bad, i didn't make any comment on that and i agree it's quite an acceptable temperature at load, regardless of model/architecture. But now it's winter and we are talking about gaming load which is not full load.

In the summer this CPU might reach well over 60 C due to risen ambient. Besides temperature, there is also noize. I had the stock HSF for a while and in the winter it would remain under 3k rpm during gaming while in the summer it would easily reach 4,5k rpm turning into a helicopter.

Anyhow he asked a question that imo, although it's easy to answer with "yes it's fine", it might not be a correct answer in the long haul.

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

FWIW my Phenom 9550 got up to 100C when the CPU fan failed, and suffered no apparent damage. Heck, it didn't even become unstable at that temperature; it was just dumb luck that I happened to notice the temps were way out of line, and I have no idea how long it was running that way.

That 9550 still runs Folding@home 24x7 (90 days of continuous uptime as of this AM), *and* hosts the VM that serves all of the inline images for my forum posts (among other things). The fan failure also prompted me to upgrade my F@h monitoring page; it automatically refreshes every 5 minutes, monitors CPU temperatures, and displays an alert at the top of the page if any of the CPUs start to overheat!

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

Anyhow he asked a question that imo, although it's easy to answer with "yes it's fine", it might not be a correct answer in the long haul.

Point taken; but it depends how you interpret the question. If he'd asked "is my cooling OK" I'd agree with you; but he specifically asked "is 52C OK", and the correct *short* answer to that question -- regardless of season -- is indeed "yes it's fine".

I agree that I should've also noted that if it is a lot cooler in the room now than it is during the summer, his temps could be significantly higher 6 months down the road.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

FWIW my Phenom 9550 got up to 100C when the CPU fan failed, and suffered no apparent damage. Heck, it didn't even become unstable at that temperature; it was just dumb luck that I happened to notice the temps were way out of line, and I have no idea how long it was running that way.

Heh. I remember when the same thing happened to my tbird 1.4 ghz back in the day, I stupidly touched the heatsink and burnt myself. I I have no idea what temperature it was, but it instantly burnt my fingers when I barely touched it.

I have no idea how long it was running without the fan. New fan and the CPU continued to work fine. <shrug>

FWIW my Phenom 9550 got up to 100C when the CPU fan failed, and suffered no apparent damage. Heck, it didn't even become unstable at that temperature; it was just dumb luck that I happened to notice the temps were way out of line, and I have no idea how long it was running that way.

That 9550 still runs Folding@home 24x7 (90 days of continuous uptime as of this AM), *and* hosts the VM that serves all of the inline images for my forum posts (among other things). The fan failure also prompted me to upgrade my F@h monitoring page; it automatically refreshes every 5 minutes, monitors CPU temperatures, and displays an alert at the top of the page if any of the CPUs start to overheat!

Not everyone has Phenoms 9550

nVidia video drivers FAIL, click for more infoDisclaimer: All answers and suggestions are provided by an enthusiastic amateur and are therefore without warranty either explicit or implicit. Basically you use my suggestions at your own risk.

In my experience, the last Intel processors that were "hot" were the Pentium 4's (Prescott in particular) in 2004. The best way to tell if a processor will run "hot" is to look at its TDP. A 125W CPU will put off more heat than a 65W or lower CPU. I really don't like saying AMD or Intel chips run hot, a 3.2Ghz quad or hexa core processor will put off more heat than a dual core 2.5Ghz processor, but will also have much better performance. On top of that, progressively smaller manufacturing processes produce CPU's with similar clocks/cores that generate less heat. Also, keep in mind that in general Intel CPU's give more performance per core, per clock than AMD chips. Because of this, between an Intel and AMD CPU with similar performance, the Intel CPU will generally run cooler than the AMD CPU because the AMD CPU will need to have a higher frequency and/or more cores.

If your current processor is just starting to get hot, I would susupect that a problem has developed with the heatsink. First, check to make sure the heatsink and fan are free of dust. Then, if the problem persists, I would suggest removing the CPU heatsink, cleaning off the old thermal paste, applying new, and reinstalling the heatsink. That should take care of your problem.